There's a lot of cruel ways to lose a soccer game and SBCC experienced one of those heartbreaks on Tuesday night in 1-0 loss to Santa Monica at La Playa Stadium.
The No. 7 Corsairs (11-2-3, 3-1-1 WSC North) didn't have a shot on goal until the 79th minute. Their second shot on goal came in the 90th minute when Ludovico Riviello's free kick from 31 yards deflected off the right side of SBCC's wall over the keeper's head and into the upper right corner.
It was the second straight 1-0 home loss for the 13th-ranked Vaqueros (7-4-2, 2-3-0), who have been shut out in five of their last eight games.
"I think we deserved to win the game," said Neil Gillies, a 6-3 freshman center back from Perth, Australia. "That was a really lucky goal for them at the end. It flicked off one of our guys into the corner, probably the luckiest goal they could have gotten.
"We've been defending well and we've been creating chances, we just can't score at the minute. I guess that's soccer."
The stats were almost identical with each team getting 11 shots and four corners. The Vaqueros had seven second-half shots with four on-target. Corsair goalie Aydin Kose recorded four of his five saves in the second half.
Ameyawu Muntari was in and out of the game with a leg injury and midfielder Adrian Gamez left the field with an injury with six minutes remaining.
Sadiki Johnson dribbled past two defenders on a breakaway in the 30th minute but Kose made a one-arm save. At 42:15, Celso Lagunas made a nice crossover and bent a shot just over the crossbar.
"We can't get a break," said coach John Sisterson. "I thought we played very well tonight. We had plenty of chances on offense. We started brightly and Takahiro Fujii tested the keeper a couple of times when he came on.
"We really controlled the game for 90 minutes. It was just unfortunate what happened at the end. I told the boys they can hold their heads high. I thought we were the best team, we just didn't get the win."
The Vaqueros open the second round of WSC action on Friday at Hancock, starting at 4 p.m.
